Review: Coco-N Garden Zen Neptune

April 6, 2018

Coco-N Garden Zen Neptune

35% ELS cotton, 35% linen, 30% cotton

$$

machine woven

Best for: all babies

Carries: all

I was so excited to check out Garden Zen when it came to visit us! I haven’t played with a Coco-N wrap before, so this one was totally new to us. I was completely surprised with how floppy it was, right out of the box, despite it not being fully broken in yet. It was also pretty dense, due to the weave – but still floppy nonetheless. I think once the linen breaks in more, this wrap could be even more floppy and just overall amazing.

First glance: I loved the colors of Neptune. That teal blue is amazing and I love everything grey — so this was perfectly up my alley. It was soft to the touch when I first opened it. Nice and warm – almost to like a blankety state. Dense – so it’s possible to be an amazing blanket, at that stage. I would say single passes for newborns/infants and multi-passes for toddlers/preschoolers. Soft enough for a newborn, but strong enough for a toddler.

I threw Tot up in a double hammock, tied under bum. He’s getting to be on the heavy side and we need to do multi-passes more often than not. The passes over the shoulder pleated nicely, which caused an illusion of cushiness. When it visited here, it was a tiny bit diggy, but I can imagine over time, once it breaks in – it will fill great on the shoulders.There is limited give on Garden Zen. I’m pretty sure that has to do with the linen in the blend. I didn’t get any stretch from this wrap, while I was wrapping. This wrap is on the solid side. No tightening, no readjusting. It seriously stayed put.

The moldability on Garden Zen wasn’t quite there yet. You can tell this wrap isn’t fully broken in. I felt like if I just had more time with it, we could’ve softened it up and gotten almost to the ace bandage stage. It’s still a little bulky and cumbersome – I believe due to the blend. You can see, in the photos that I wasn’t able to tighten up my passes as much as I wanted to – but that solidness makes this wrap perfect for toddlers.

I could see this wrap as in between a workhorse wrap and delicate. Delicate in the sense that it might be pull prone due to the weave, but it’s unlikely. It’s hard to tell. The wrap is dense, so it’s unlikely to get pulls — but the way the weave is, anything is possible. I would say workhorse, because I can see myself using it all the time, thrown in the backseat of the car, on the couch and nothing should happen to it. The denseness makes me feel like it’s impossible to hurt.

This is not a hot wrap. There should be no heat retention at all. You would think that it would be, because I keep mentioning how dense it its, but with the cotton and linen? It makes it possible for air to pass through and not retain so much heat.

The pattern of the weave makes Garden Zen a pretty grippy wrap. It takes a little bit of work to get the passes in place, but once they’re in place, they stay put – which is convenient with a wriggly toddler. It’s extremely textured in hand, Tot loved to run his hands back and forth on it. He said it felt “cool”. As of right now, I would say the wrap retains shape, but it’s definitely on its way to becoming floppy.

Look at that middle marker! I love the logo on their tag. You can see a lot of the texture that I mentioned, just in the photo.

The weave is quite interesting. I feel like it was almost like a chameleon… Depending on which way the wrap was tilted/facing the sunlight, it was almost like a different color. The weave makes it almost look like the thread shifting and it’s like a complete illusion. It’s to show the different colors of the threads.

I wish this wrap would come back for a second time in a few months so I can see how it is when it’s even more broken in. I think it would become super soft, but so supportive. That’s the direction it felt like it was going in.